Classroom Snapshot for the Month of November

Wow! What a pack-full month of learning we've had in third grade! Our first trimester has quickly come to an end. Hopefully your child brought home their report card to you on Friday.

I look forward to seeing all of you at conferences next week. Please be sure to write down and bring any questions or concerns that you have regarding your child's progress with you at conference time. Be sure to click on this link to view our conference schedule.

I would like to wish you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving! How thankful I am to be able to spend your child's third grade experience with them. It has been such a blessing being able to watch them grow and mature. It certainly has been a fun year together! Please enjoy the time together over the next week and have a safe and fantastic break with your family!

Here's what has been happening in our classroom:

Reading:

Throughout Unit 2 of Treasures, the students have been working on the comprehension strategies of summarizing and utilizing our context clues to determine the meaning of a word or paragraph. Additionally, we have been reading stories that distinguish between fantasy and reality events and fact and opinion persuasive articles. Throughout vocabulary time, the students have been working with antonyms, multiple-meaning words, and words with plural endings.

Your child can click on the following links for additional activities with some of the stories we read together:

• The Strongest One
• Wolf
• What's in Store for the Future?
• The Planets in Our Solar System

The students have been doing a great job during guided reading time too. In our novel groups, we have been working on using the comprehension strategies that we have learned to answer questions in our novel group packets. We've also had some great literature circle discussions too. All of the novel groups have read one chapter book together and now we are now onto reading our second book for the year.

Last week students brought home for you their first book bag reading of the year. This is a book that corresponds with the comprehension strategies that go along with our Treasures series and serves as a reinforcement. All of the students have read the book with a partner during our Daily 5 "Read to Someone" time. Their homework assignment is to reread the story at home and afterwards have an adult ask them comprehension questions about what they have read. The adult is encouraged to utilize the comprehension questions that are listed in the back of the book or they can use the "Bloom's Taxonomy" questions that are inside of their child's bag.

As a reminder, it is important for your child to still continue to read at least 20 minutes a night independently or with an adult at home.

Grammar:

Over the past month the students have been working with distinguishing between common and proper nouns, the rules of making a noun plural, and the rules of making a noun possessive.

During Daily 5 time, the students had fun practicing these skills with the following web pages. Click on these links to view and play the web site games at home:

• Rats! (Common Nouns)
• Plural Girls
• Irregular Plurals
• Exploring for Possessives

Writing:

During Writer's Express (WEX) time, our class continues to work hard learning about the important elements to include in a personal narrative. Together, our mini-lessons have been focusing on writing our paragraphs in a more logical and organized manner. In addition, we are continuing to make sure that our work focuses on a single moment in time. Our lessons have also been stressing the importance of utilizing strong verbs, good sensory detail, and proper sentence mechanics in our writing.

During conference time, parents will be able to view all of our stories in our WEX binder. Parents will also get to read our first published personal narrative.

Math:

The students just completed Unit 3 dealing with Units of Measurements. Together, the students reviewed how to measure to the nearest inch, 1/2 inch, centimeter, and 1/2 centimeter using a ruler and tape measure with various objects. We also worked with all of the other basic standards of measurement involving yards, meters, miles, and kilometers. The students had fun learning how to determine both the area and perimeter of objects and spaces. Our unit concluded with learning how to find the diameter and circumference of circular objects.

Social Studies:

The students have been very busy working on their first UbD Project of the year. UbD stands for "Understanding by Design". In September, the third grade teachers spent a few days designing a UbD Project that focuses on studying about our Midwest Unit. Within the unit, each student was put into a group of 5-6 students and randomly assigned a Midwest state to research together.

Through their research, students must answer the essential question of "Why would people choose to live in your Midwest state?". Their research started off with students learning how to research information about their state in books and selected online websites. The students then learned how to record the physical features, major economic activities, natural resources, and historical and contemporary attractions about their state in an online program called Googledocs. (This is a web-based office suite that allows the students to create and edit their notes onlines while collaborating in real-time with their group members.) From their research, each group designed and wrote a newscast to state their findings about their state. Each newscast was video recorded and will be downloaded into an iMovie. Currently, each group is learning how to edit and add special features to their newscasts.

Our entire Midwest Project will be displayed to the parents during our Third Grade Curriculum Snapshot on Dec. 9th. We hope you received an invitation to this event the other day via backpack mail. If not, please refer to this link for more information. We can't wait to show off our hard work to you!

A BIG THANK YOU goes to all of our parent classroom volunteers

We would like to thank Mrs. Filippelli, Mrs. Silvestri, Mrs. Orlyk, Mrs. Gainulin, Mrs. Moran, Mr. Kakavetsis, Mrs. Bolithon, Mrs. Grant O'Hara, and Mrs. Jones for coming in to assist with our Reader's Theater groups for the months of October and November!

I also greatly appreciate Mrs. Doctor, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Moran, Mrs. Collins, and Mrs. Bolithon for coming in to do all of our copying. We greatly appreciate your time!

We would also like to thank Mrs. Bolithon and Mrs. Moran for coming in on Friday for a spectacular Art Appreciation lesson about mosaics. The students had a blast making their own mosaics that will be displayed after Thanksgiving break.

Come to our Curriculum Snapshot!

Hi Parents,

We cordially invite you to our first Curriculum Snapshot of the year on Friday, December 9th from 2:30-3:30 p.m. Please meet us in our individual classrooms. The students will be showing you all of the hard work they did with our Midwest UbD Project. We hope to see you there!

Electronics Party on Thursday!

Don't forget to bring in your permission forms by Wednesday for our Class Electronics Party!

Our Halloween Party Was a Success!

Wow! What a great time we had at our Halloween Party and Parade in Room 116 on Monday!

Our party certainly could not have been a success without all of our background planning and help from our parent volunteers! We would like to thank Mrs. Jones for all of her hard work in helping to plan, organize, assemble, and execute all of the Halloween activities and stations at our party. We also appreciate Mrs. Bolithon, Mrs. Moran, Mr. Nesbitt, Mr. Jones, Mrs. Sluga, Mrs. Barretto, Mrs. Kakavetsis, Mrs. Lawlor, and Mrs. Silvestri for helping us out with running the games and activities. We truly appreciate Mrs. Kakavetsis making special fruit skewers for the kids to eat. A big thanks also goes out to Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Sobkowicz, and Mrs. Lennon for supplying the food, drinks, plates, and napkins. This event could not have gone on without all of your help and support!

Reminders for the week..........

Please remember that two items are due on Monday:

1. Have your parents sign and return the Halloween letter. (It's the orange letter that went home last week regarding whether or not your child is staying at school or going home to change into their costume.)

2. Please correct, sign, and return your ISAT Treasures Reading Test by tomorrow.

Show Your School Spirit All Next Week for Character Counts!

Next week is National Character Counts week! Show your school spirit all week long by remembering to wear the following to school:

Monday, October 17th: Wear Tye-Dye

Go retro for responsibility.

Tuesday, October 18th: Wear your clothes backwards

Turn your back on disrespect!

Wednesday, October 19th: Crazy Hair Day

Go crazy for caring!

Thursday, October 20th: Wear pajamas

Bring on the flannel for fairness.

Friday, October 21st: Wear a hat

Hats off to trustworthy friends and good citizens.

Reminders for Friday!

Two reminders for Friday:

1. Tomorrow is Westgate's Spirit Day! Students are encouraged to wear attire that supports their favorite college or university. (Mrs. Hynek will certainly be wearing her I.U. attire!). I told the students that if they do not have an university attire at home, they should wear the school colors supporting their favorite school or wear Westgate attire. Hats are also welcome in our classroom tomorrow.

2. Scholastic Book Club orders are due tomorrow. I will be placing the order over the weekend.

Have a wonderful rest of the week!

Classroom Snapshot: Weeks of Sept. 19th-Oct. 6th

I hope that you all had a wonderful long holiday weekend with your families. We certainly couldn't have asked for better weather. Let's hope that it stays this way for quite a while!

Here's what has been happening in our classroom:

Reading:

Together, we read a non-fiction story called Penguin Chick where the students learned how to find the main idea and important supporting details of a story. Click here to find additional activities for students to work on at home to go along with this story. Independently, I also assigned students short chapter books that were appropriate to their reading level and had them practice finding the main idea and details for each chapter in their book.

The students also had fun reading a realistic fiction story called The Perfect Pet. During this time, we discussed how most fictional stories have some sort of problem and several steps involved in order to find the solution to the problem. Feel free to click here for your student to find other activities to go along with the story we read. Later in the week, the students given a short chapter book to read and they performed various activities and questions that allowed them to practice finding the problem and solution to their story.

Throughout vocabulary time, the students have been working with homographs. These are words that are spelled the same, but have different meanings. Additionally, the students have also been using the website called Dictionary.com to learn how to find the various definitions of words having multiple meanings.

I'm more excited than anyone to tell you that our reading benchmarking is finally finished! As a result, novel groups will be starting on Tuesday. I have placed your child in a group and provided them with an appropriate novel that I feel matches their reading strengths and capabilities. Guided reading time involves assigning students chapters to read independently, having them answer comprehension questions about their book, and meeting with their group for a novel group discussion. Throughout the year, your child may be moved to a different guided reading group depending on their needs. If your child has a difficult time finishing their guided reading assignment during the schedule 60 minute guided reading period, they will be asked to finish it that night for homework.

Grammar:

Over the past two weeks, the students have been working on determining the difference between finding the subject and predicate in a sentence. We also have been learning the proper way to combine two sentences that are alike by using a comma and the words "but" or "and" to make one compound sentence.

During literacy time, the students had fun practicing these skills with the following web pages. Click on these links to view and play the web site games at home: Rags to Riches and Compound Sentences.

Spelling:

A big thanks goes out to all of the parents that are working with their student on spelling each evening. Please continue to make sure that they are sorting their words correctly into their various spelling categories. The goal of our spelling program is for the students to learn and retain the spelling rules and word patterns for future use in their writing. The nightly spelling sorts and activities will help your student to reach this goal.

Because of the shortened week, the students will not be assigned any spelling homework or have a test this week.

Writing:

Over the past couple of weeks, the third graders have been working harding during WEX time using the concept of "showing details" in their writing. Showing is the skill of using precise observations, descriptive details, and expressive language to demonstration emotion, create images, and present evidence within our writing. The students have been learning the difference between telling the reader what is happening in their writing versus "showing" the reader. For example, instead of telling the reader "I was cold", the students have learned that they can better show how the person is feeling by saying, "I was shivering outside on my front porch as I zipped up my coat". Thus, we are learning how to write details in our work that are more precise and authentic to the reader.

Math:

We have been very busy with Unit 2 in math that involves adding and subtracting whole numbers. The students have been working hard learning about fact families, extensions of addition and subtraction facts, "What's My Rule?" problems, parts-and-total number stories, and comparision number stories.

Last week, the students learned how to add up three-digit numbers using the "Algorithm Method". This is where the students add up the numbers in the 100's column first, the 10's column next, and the 1's column last. I know that this method proved to be frustrating to some parents because this is not the same way that they learned how to add up numbers when they were in 3rd grade. Please don't worry though! Soon, the students will be shown how to add up three digit numbers using the traditional method of regrouping. After the two methods have been practiced, I will let them choose if they want to add up numbers using the Algorithm Method or the Regrouping Method.

Social Studies:

Throughout the rest of the Illinois Unit, the students continued to learn about the major historical events that occurred in Illinois in becoming a state in the Union. We also briefly discussed how the historical events of the Civil War and World Wars I and II affected the population, growth, and economy to our state. Our unit concluded with learning about various state facts our state that included our state bird, flower, fossil, flag, animal, tree, fish, and insect. The students did a great job on their end of the unit test last Thursday! Our next unit will involve learning about all of the Midwestern states.

A BIG THANK YOU goes to all of our parent classroom volunteers!

We would like to thank Mrs. Bolithon for putting together our classroom calendar of volunteers. We would also like to thank Mrs. Moran for sending out weekly email reminders to the volunteers for their upcoming duties. If you did not receive an email of the schedule and you believe that you were on our volunteer list, please let me know.

We were able to have our first Reader's Theater at the end of September. This is where the students are put into a small group with a parent and asked to read aloud from a short play script. We certainly appreciate Mr. Nesbitt, Mrs. Gainulin, Mrs. Bolithon, Mrs. Grant O'Hara, and Mrs. Jones for coming in to assist and monitor each of our groups!

I also greatly appreciate Mrs. Moran, Mrs. Bolithon, Mrs. Filippelli, and Mrs. Silvestri for coming in to do all of our copying. We greatly appreciate your time!

Updates and Reminders for the Week

Tomorrow is National Walk to School Day!

Please encourage your students to walk or ride their bike to school on Wednesday! Teachers will be present at the following stops to assist and monitor the walking:

*Euclid and Dwyer

*Sigwalt and Highland

*Fairview and Highland

*Wilke and Grove (This is where I'll be walking from tomorrow. Please join me!)

Spelling Homework

Hopefully your student told this to you last night, but they only need to complete three spelling assignments this week. Because we don't have school on Friday, our Spelling Test will be on Thursday! Please also make sure that you are working with your child to help them with their sorts at home. This will not only help them to be successful on their weekly tests, but more importantly it will help them to retain the word patterns and rules for future use in their writing.

Novel Groups

Get excited! I'm almost done with literacy testing. Novel Groups will start next week!

No School on 10/7 and 10/10

Due to a School Institute Day and Columbus Day, we will not have school on Friday or Monday. I hope that you have a fun, safe, and restful weekend with your family!

Our Classroom Snapshot: 9/5-9/16

Here's what has been happening in our classroom:

Reading:

Together, we read a realistic fiction story called Dear Juno where we continued to review and analyze how to find the story structure of a book. We have also been discussing how most fictional stories have a problem in the book and a solution to their problem. Click here to find additional activities for students to work on at home to go along with this story.

Additionally, the students had an opportunity this week to read a non-fiction article called Whose Habitat Is It?. Together, we had a great discussion about how many wild animals have lost their homes due to the fact that people are building houses and roads in their habitats. Click here for additional activities to use with this story at home. Through our discussions, the students have been working on the reading strategies of summarizing the important events in a story and attempting to find the main idea and details of a story.

Throughout the week I've also been individually assessing your child in the areas of fluency and comprehension. Because each of the assessments are taking longer than anticipated (about 30 minutes per child), we will not be starting individual guided reading groups quite yet. In the meantime, the students are utilizing this testing time working on various reading strategies and Daily 5 routines. I thank you for your patience with this process!

Writing:

Our class is really starting to get used to the format and routines our new WEX Writing Program. Over the past couple of weeks we have been learning about the writing concept of focus. Throughout our lessons the students have been learning that when we focus on one moment, setting, sound, or object in our writing, it results in more interesting words, unique perspectives, and surprising fun-to-read details.

The students had a blast setting up their own individual blog site on our classroom blog! Together, we discussed blog rules and regulations of utilizing the blog in our classroom. At school, the students learned how to get into their blog account and record information. At home, each of the students were responsible for writing a short paragraph about themselves. On Friday, I showed the students how they can comment on each other's blogs. Click this link to view your child's blog. Please have them show you how to log in with their name and password. They are welcome to add comments to their classroom blogs at home. We will be utilizing this blog site throughout the year to post information about a good book we have read and to record findings that we learn about during Science and Social Studies time.

Spelling:

Our "Words Their Way" spelling program starts on Monday. Please look for information going home that day regarding student homework. Homework packets are always due on Friday and the final spelling test will be given then too.

Grammar:

Over the past two weeks, the students have been working on determining when they should use a period or an exclamation mark in their sentences. We also have been discussing how in order for a sentence to be considered a complete sentence, it must always contain a subject. During literacy time, the students had fun practicing these skills with the following web pages. Click on these links to view and play the web site games at home: Penguins on Ice and Sink or Swim.

Math:

The students continue to review some of the concepts that they learned already in 2nd grade. Our lessons have involved analyzing data and plotting it into various kinds of graphs, finding equivalent names for a given number, discussing the concept of chance, learning how to utilize our new calculators, and counting money. Unit 1 will conclude this week with a test on Friday.

Social Studies:

We continue to learn about the first inhabitants to Illinois that involve the Paleo, Archaic, Hopewell, Mississippian Mound Builders, and Illini tribes. Through our studies, the students are exploring and comparing their homes, farming, and the contributions and inventions they provided.